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This is the seventeenth installment of "Eat This List" - a regularly recurring list of things chefs, farmers, writers and other food experts think you ought to know about. Pictured above: supermarket shelves plundered in anticipation of a blizzard in January, 2011.

Weather outside? Frightful. Inside? As delightful as you care to craft it.

Just in case you've been huddled up in an igloo or a Tauntaun with no mobile or cable reception, massive snowfall has thwacked a big chunk of the country. Millions of people are either digging out or frozen in place, and it's it's gonna stay chilly over the next few days.

Might as well hunker down and fuel up. Here's what's on my cold weather menu. Or it would be if I were at my home, rather than snowed in an airport motel far from home.1. Hearty soups
It's wicked icky outside, and probably non-coincidentally, it's cold and flu season, too. If you've got time to sled to the store before the hacking and/or quease set in, a kale and spinach-based green soup or a soul-soothing chicken brew are a good way to go. If the cooties have already settled in, dispatch a hardy soul for a Silkie and some wolfberries and sniffle pitifully on the couch until they return to make your black chicken stew.

But if like us, you made a resolution to actually use up whatever is in the fridge instead of shopping or ordering food, this is the perfect opportunity to make a fantastic, and ever so economically sound leftovers soup. If you've been saving up shrimp peels or chicken bones, or have a spare carrot, celery stalk and onion lolling about, put them to work in a simple, soulful stock, and then chop and add whatever looks salvageable from the crisper or meat drawer.

For extra flavor, brown and drain any meat that might go in the pot, and consider giving vegetables a quick roasting in the oven before adding. Here are some great tips and recipes for souping up your technique.

2. Glammed-up oatmeal
Cinnamon, brown sugar, raisins, maple - take a seat, because things are about to get a little savory. I'm not sure where we as a breakfasting society got the notion that all oatmeal had to be sweet - or even just for breakfast. It takes on flavor just as well as rice, farro, polenta or any of the other ubiquitous grains and meals, and it's a great source of B vitamins and calcium, helps lower cholesterol and reduces the risk of heart disease.

Eat it for your health and for warm, hearty sustenance amidst a deep freeze. Enjoy it for its delicious versatility.

My favorite add-ins include hot sauce or chili oil, cheese (especially Parmesan or gouda) and a dash of salt, but it's great with sausage or leftover barbecue, herbs like sage, thyme and rosemary, roasted tomatoes and peppers, curry spices and so much more. If you've got the time and wherewithal, opt for steel-cut oats rather than instant, and speed up the process by making a large batch and storing it in individual portions to reheat as needed.

Yup, I fully admit that this sounds kinda batty, but just everyone I've led down the savory oatmeal path has become a hot-cereal-dinner disciple.

3. Snow ice cream
Snowpocalypse! Snowmageddon! SNOMG! Whatever portmanteau your local news outlet uses to panty-bunch about major winter weather events, odds are they bury the lede like a Mini Cooper in the path of a city plow. I won't: FREE FOOD is FALLING from the SKY.

Get your blizzard buffet on for a fraction of the price of Haagen-Dazs Dulce de Leche and feel like you're Laura Ingalls Wilder, hardscrabbling out on the Dakota Territory, minus the outhouse and pig bladder balloons. Here's the recipe.

4. Hot cocktails
Work is canceled, your going-out plans have been put on ice - might as well have a cocktail. Heck, make a batch of them in case company snowshoes over.

Hey, look what I made! There are few pleasures or opportunities for self-back-patting greater than those from whipping up homemade bread. Get all of the credit (and bread) with roughly as much effort as it takes to make boxed mac 'n' cheese with this simple method for beer bread.

Presumably, you panic-stocked up on beer, flour, sugar and a stick of butter before the storm, right? Butter a loaf pan and heat your oven to 375°F. Melt the rest of the stick of butter and keep it warm.

Mix 3 cups of self-rising flour (sifted, if you have the wherewithal), 1/4 cup of sugar and a bottle of your favorite beer (I like a stout or other dark brew) in a bowl until it makes a shaggy dough. Pat that into the buttered pan and pour the rest of the butter atop it. Bake it for about an hour or until the crust is crunchy, and if you possibly can, let it rest for 15 minutes before slicing and bragging.

So you've got soup, bread, ice cream, cereal and cocktails at the ready now, and hopefully that will hold you through the thaw. Did you have another winter shut-in staple you'd like to see get its due? I'm all ears and would love to attempt it should I ever get back home. Please share it in the comments below, and you just might see it shouted out in an upcoming feature.

soundoff(30 Responses)

viiilx

Snow ice cream? One of my kids had that idea one day, I told him to scoop up a glass of freshly dropped snow, left it in the room until it melted. I showed him the glass when all the snow melted and he never asked again. Hint: The air air super polluted.

February 5, 2014 at 11:37 pm |

foodfight

Either beef stew or chili, choose your preference.

February 5, 2014 at 7:14 pm |

cc

saute carrots, onion, garlic. add tomato paste. brown some chicken wings in the oven. brown everything in the freezer/meat drawer in a pan. add some dry red to the pan and get all the good stuff. add more wine, chicken stock and all the meat/fish/suasage and any veggies that you like. goooood. and fun to make a mess getting at the wings

January 28, 2014 at 2:57 pm |

Ann

My mom used to make what she called "garbage soup" - stock from a chicken carcass and whatever veggies she had to use up. Parsley stems, celery leaves ... whatever!

January 23, 2014 at 12:53 pm |

Betty

Beef stew with all sorts of veggies including turnip and cabbage (my family doesn't even know it's in there) chili, regular or white chicken chili. How about a mogal melter, hot chocolate with peppermint schnaps. Mulled wine. Bottle of Merlow, 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar depending on how dry, 2 sticks cinnamon, zest of an orange, the juice of the orange and a few cloves which I like to stick in the orange for easy removal. Heat but don't boil, serve when sugar is dissolved. Popcorn is a good one to, easy and if you want to get fancy, search some recipes like cinnamon roll or kettle corn (non of the bagged stuff). Yum, I need a storm day.

Reblogged this on Think About Eat and commented:
I couldn't resist sharing Kat Kinsman's great ideas for 5 things worth cooking up in this deep freeze. I heartily endorse the beer bread one and everything-in-my-fridge soups. I'm still using broth frozen from my Thanksgiving turkey as the base for sweeter-based soups (after all, the bird was basted in maple syrup). And I just realized we're the only people in the neighborhood that haven't scraped our driveway and sidewalk — sorry mailman. Which gives me even more excuses to stay in and cook. Cheers to being snowed in (which, in DC, happens with a couple of inches and lasts for days)!

January 23, 2014 at 11:01 am |

RC

I have GOT to try the beer bread.

January 23, 2014 at 10:31 am |

JellyBean

Sounds wonderful!

January 23, 2014 at 10:03 am |

AleeD®

We just stocked up at the chocolate festival this past weekend. Clean out the fridge? You got it!